Community Insights: Media Viewing In the Modern Era

“Home theater” has never been a more relevant term, as data on media viewing habits show that adults of all ages are more likely to seek the comfort of their own couch rather than the communal space of the movie theater.

The “Home” in Home Theater

As Anjali Lai of Forrester notes in her most recent blog post, data gathered by Forrester’s Consumer Technographics® shows that video media consumption among adults is still on the rise, including the viewing of films. This is particularly surprising, as the attention span of modern adults, particularly young adults, has been repeatedly called into question, and is beginning to have a profound effect on entertainment. But the numbers confirm that adults are watching movies at an increased pace – it’s the venue in which they’re watching that is shifting.

Increasingly, adults are choosing to view movies – and video entertainment at large – from their own homes. Forrester’s data shows that viewing a movie on a TV handedly outweighs the choice to view a movie in the theater – 83% of adult respondents preferred the TV over 35% who are willing to take a trip to the theater. Curious about their findings, over at MintVine we ran a similar poll to determine if our panelists felt the same way. Interestingly enough, they overwhelmingly did – 53.77% of all our respondents agreed that TV was the preferred method of watching movies, while 33.02% believe that going out to a theater is still the route to take.

Base: 15,695Source: Branded Research Inc & Mintvine, 03/07/2017

Streaming Services and Cutting the Cord

The increased tilt toward a personalized entertainment experience, and having more control over the media viewing experience in general, coincide with new developments being offered by online distributors. One such development is the upcoming introduction of Youtube TV – the $35/month service that Alphabet, Inc (home of Google) hopes will push a number of standard cable viewers into “cord cutting” territory, abandoning traditional cable contracts for the easier, pay-per-month streaming models that have put Netflix and Hulu on the map.

What sets Youtube TV apart is the inclusion of live TV streams of the majority of major networks – ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC. There is also the built in DVR system, allowing users to record shows directly through the service to watch at their leisure (see, personalized media experiences!). It also offers something Netflix and Hulu have yet to adopt – live sports. With ESPN, Youtube TV is sure to draw the eye of many sports fans tired of the complicated, and pricey, sports packages offered through traditional cable companies.

“Cord cutting” has continued to climb as an enduring trend, and it seems more people each day are turning to the alternative choices get their TV fix. As well they should, as many of the platforms offering streaming services are also content creators, and the content they are creating is noteworthy. Just this year, Manchester By the Sea was nominated for 6 Oscars, winning 2 – Best Actor (Casey Affleck) and Best Original Screenplay (Kenneth Lonergan), and taking home a new, if award-less, distinction: the first film to win an Oscar that’s been produced by a streaming service – Amazon Studios.

While Manchester was distributed through the traditional theater pipeline, Amazon studios continues to take risks and push out quality television content to be streamed through Amazon Prime as well. This goes hand-in-hand with the many Emmy nods Amazon, Hulu, and, more-so than others, Netflix is bringing in for their daring television content, and further proves the streaming services’ commitment to funnel the money they’re earning back into quality content for their viewers. This is perhaps why our panelists have responded that they’re most likely to binge watch TV in their leisure time, rather than surf the web, read a book, or take a nap on those all too inviting lazy Sundays.

Base: 14,847Source: Branded Research Inc. and Mintvine; 02/27/2017

Lessons Learned

What we can clearly see is that the entertainment landscape at large is poised to shift toward a viewing experience that is personal, meaningful, and overall individual – and marketers, producers, content creators, and artists would be wise to take note. The people – those valuable viewers – are speaking, and pivoting. They want more content, but they want it on their terms. And viewers will continue to speak with the loudest voices they have – money, and time. The valuable time spent on newer platforms is increasing – our panelists are already trending toward viewing more Youtube videos daily and weekly (see below) – and the money will follow, as viewers seek out the best platforms that speak to them with the content they care about.

As always, if you’d like to have you’ve voice heard, and make your opinion matter, head over to MintVine and become a panelist. We’ll update you daily with surveys that match your profile, and host daily polls like the one’s you’ve seen throughout this post, and most importantly – you’ll be paid for your time.